1. Overall 183.69; 1.Free Dance 110.02
(53.17+57.85 -1); Meryl Davis &
Charlie White
took the sport to a new technical peak bringing this
second annual event to a stunning close with a four minute program
set to grippingly emotional music composed by Rimsky Korsakov, the
immortal “Sheherazade”. There is little doubt that the couple, and
their trainer, Marina Zoueva, have created a fantastically
difficult routine which can be challenged by only one other couple
in the world, and this Canadian duo is also trained by Zoueva,
Tessa Virtue & Scott Moir. The Canadians, however, are not
expected to debut their routines until the Finlandia Trophy in
October.

Davis was dressed minimally, in lots of
sparkling illusion material with a light blue basis. That was
perfectly in keeping with her role. White, attired in teal velvet
with elaborate embroidery on his back, is a bored Shah, who
marries one of his subjects every day and has her head cut off the
following morning, before taking the next bride later that day.

Davis outwits him by spinning a mesmerizing
tale that is still incomplete when the sun comes up the following
morning, so he chooses to keep her for another day. After many,
many nights of entertaining stories, she gets a permanent
reprieve.

Davis revealed an interesting background fact
in the press conference afterwards. Most ice dancers might think
about what kind of music they want the following season, but they
do not actually start working on the project until the season
begins, and sometimes lose a lot of time because they can’t get
the music just right.

But not this team! “Charlie and I were really
excited to debut this program. It’s a program we have kind of been
crafting with Marina for a couple of years now, with some of the
elements, and the music is something we’ve been thinking about for
a while. Debuting it was a really exciting thing for us. It’s an
incredibly challenging program so we are a little bit on the tired
side at the end. We think that’s good. We think it’s going to be a
great vehicle for us moving forward.”

Amazingly, White added, “The amount of
potential it (the program) still has is staggering. For us, we are
thrilled with how we put it out there tonight. We worked hard to
get to the point where it’s at now but we feel very strongly that
it’s going to grow immeasurably and I think that’s part of what’s
so exciting about competing this program, just knowing how far we
can take it.

Davis contends, “This is just the beginning. I
think we are going to work on everything from the technical
aspect, making sure all the lifts and footwork look really solid,
to getting a chance to train to the point where we can showcase
our skating skills without having to worry through every element.”

White explained that even they, with their
unmatched physical prowess, have room for improvement, “Sometimes
an element will feel like we showed a Level 4 (technically the
maximum possible) but there are several things the judges will
comment on that could have brought you down to a three. All we can
ever do is the best that we can and train as hard as we can and
leave it all out on the ice which I think we were able to do
today.

“Were we perfect on every edge? I don’t think
so. But we tried really hard and I’m proud of that.”

Davis, possibly politely being a little overly
kind to her competitors, said, “All the teams are just so
impressive. There is so much depth in the ice dance world now, not
just in one area of the world but totally internationally, which
is so exciting for us. These young teams or teams that we have
been skating with for a long time, we take inspiration from all of
them. It’s equally as much of an honor for us”.

They opened with a Level 4 curve lift which
earned an extra +1.33 Grade of Execution. (Three out of the five
judges gave the maximum +3 Grade of Execution and the other two
gave +2.) Then came Level 3, +2.00 Circular steps for which one
judge punched in the maximum +3 and the rest +2.

Their spectacular straight line to rotational
lift earned Level 4 with +2.00 extra on the base value of eight
full points with three judges giving the maximum +3 and the other
two awarding +2. Their combination spin along with their twizzles
were both rewarded with Level 4. The spin received an extra +1.17
(with one judge giving the maximum +3, and the others +2), and the
twizzles got a full extra 1.0 with one judge giving +3, three
punching in +2 but one giving only +1, which is still means
superior to the base value.

The Diagonal steps were Level 3 with 3.00 full
points extra, which comprised four of the maximum +3s and only one
+2! They concluded with the brief choreographed lift, which
received huge applause from audience. The seating capacity was
very small which meant although the event was televised by
icenetwork.com, only a relative few got to witness this wonderful
ground-breaking performance in person.

Each of the five judges also punched in five
component scores. One judge thought Davis & White were worthy of
the maximum 10 for both the Composition/Choreography section and
for the Interpretation/Timing. Two others gave the maximum for the
C/C. None of the judges went below 9.25 and the three judges who
punched that mark in, gave it for the other three categories.

To bring the skaters back down to earth,
however, they did lose a point for one lift going over the
allocated time.

This correspondent does not remember being so
awestruck by a season’s debut performance since Jayne Torvill &
Christopher Dean unveiled their Bolero routine for the 1984 season
at the British championship, but that was possibly influenced
partly by the shock of seeing them lie on the ice for so long at
the beginning and breaking so many rules!

The only male twice Olympic ice dance gold
medalist, Evgeni Platov (1994 & 1998 with Oksana Gritschuk), who
was in Salt Lake coaching the British champions, said he thinks
that Davis & White’s choice of music is a stroke of genius. He
explained, “This music, written by a Russian, is extremely popular
in Russia. In Sochi the audience will undoubtedly go wild as soon
as it starts playing.”

2. Overall 161.99; 2.FD 99.38 (49.33+50.05)
Kaitlyn Weaver &
Andrew Poje are
six-times Canadian national silver medalists (behind Virtue & Moir).
She is originally from Houston, Texas but went to Canada to seek a
partner and they have been together since August 2006.

They now train at the Detroit SC, and have just survived an
unfortunate season when she broke her ankle and had to have more
surgery this past summer to remove a plate and five screws.

They gained the maximum Level 4 for six elements with both set of
steps Level 3. However, they received only one +3 Grade of
Execution, which was for their choreographed short lift which has
no other Level than 1.

Weaver explained,
“This competition was a test for my foot and it felt great. “We’ve
never competed this early in the season so it’s nice to get these
programs out there. Now we have five weeks before our next
competition to clean up the programs.

“Poje added, “Last
year we had some bumps in the road. Those challenges have actually
made us a stronger team. It showed us what we are capable of.”

They performed to “Maria de Buenos Aires”. Poje admitted, “It was
a little hard today because it’s so early in the season. Putting
it out there so early is new for us, we still have to develop the
program, develop our stamina and the finishing touches to the
program. We are really happy with the performance and where we
started off the season.”

Weaver said, “This Olympic year, I feel, is somewhat of a
redemption year. That last Olympics, we put so much pressure on
ourselves to make the team, which became somewhat obsessive. That
wasn’t much fun. This is what we do as a career. It’s fun for us.
We learned our lesson then, so this year, we’re not doing much
different in terms of our own work ethic. We are adding more
hours, more dance classes, but we’re enjoying it. That’s very
important so we can look back on this time and be happy.”

3. Overall 137.60; 3.FD
82.96 (41.67+42.29 -1 for an extended lift) Nicole Orford &
Thomas Williams are the
2011 Canadian Junior champions who have made fast progress on the
senior scene, placing 6th in 2012 and winning bronze in
their national championship earlier this year. She turns 21 on
October 10. He is 22. They performed to four pieces from Webber’s
Love Never Dies: Beneath the Moonless Sky; Coney Island Waltz;
Heaven by the Sea; and Till I Hear You Sing.

Orford said, “It feels
good (to win bronze) and get our programs out in front of
international judges. We are very happy with this kind of start to
the season. There are still things to work on but overall it was a
good experience.” Williams added, “The performance level was
there. We stayed engaged with the judges and ourselves. But, we
know we are going to have to push harder against a very deep field
if we want to earn that chance to wear the Canadian uniform in
Sochi.”

She
continued, “There are a lot of teams in Canada fighting for that
third Olympic spot. We’re working as hard as we can. We are
getting lots of outside help with acting coaches, ballroom dance
teachers, and Broadway performance teachers.”

He agreed, “Our coaches are doing a good job of keeping us on track
and helping make sure we are doing everything we need to do, and
tell us to remember where and when we should rest and recover.
They are doing a great job of steering us to our goals.”

4. Overall 134.48; 4.FD 81.45 (42.83+40.62 -2
for two extended lifts) Lynn Kriengkrairut, from Bismarck, N.D. &
Logan Giulietti-Schmitt,
from Oak Park, Ill, have moved to train in Novi, Mich. with Igor
Shpilband. They climbed two places from their SD position
performing to music from the ballet “Spartacus”. They earned five
Level 4s. The circular steps and twizzles were Level 3 but the
final element, the diagonal steps were only Level 2.

Kriengkrairut admitted, “It’s a lot different for us in our new
training environment but it’s been positive. We’ve had a lot of
input from different coaches that have helped various aspects of
our skating. It’s still a work in progress but we are happy with
the changes we have made so far. We need to continue to work on
the overall package. There is a lot to work on in both programs.
Technical stuff is something we need to work on and we need to
focus on our levels in our foot work. It’ll keep growing from
here.”

Giulietti-Schmitt agreed, “It is a lot different but still pretty
comfortable. Our programs are a lot freer this year. We feel like
we have the ability to move across the ice a lot better. Today was
not our best performance. We know it’s already an improvement from
Lake Placid (the summer Dance competition) so we’re happy with
that.”

5. Overall 133.41; 5.FD 79.44 (38.32+42.12 -1 for a fall)
Penny Coomes &
Nick Buckland are the
twice British champions, who train in the US. They were
disappointed that they received only Level 1 for the lift in the
Short Dance, but they were still lying only a fraction behind
third at that point and hoped to gain a medal.

But, right from the start of the Free, they just were just NOT
“on”. They have an ambitious Michael Jackson routine but, as the
music started, while they were in their opening pose, he fell. “I
don’t know what happened,” he said latter, shaking his head. I was
just about to move and I fell backwards. It was a bit of a
shake-up!”

Their beginning long lift and the curve lift earned Level 4.
However the Midline & Circular steps, as well as the spin were
only Level 2. They dropped a place.

6. Overall 132.34; 6 FD 78.59 (38.80+39.79)
Juliya Zlobina & Alexsei Sitnikov,
Azerbaijan, presented a routine to music from the movie, “Pina”,
which the German former world pair champions, Aliona Savchenko &
Robin Szolkowy introduced to the skating world. They dropped a
place.

8. Overall 119.34; 8.FD 71.27 (34.86+37.41
-1 for an extended lift) Anastasia Cannuscio &
Colin McManus,
USA, gave a lively showing to “An American in Paris. Cannuscio
said, “Other than level stuff, the competition went really well
for us. We had fun and showed our programs for the season. I had a
lot of fun and I feel like we expressed them well which is what we
wanted to do.

“This year being so difficult - especially
with such a deep field in dance - this year we wanted to take this
event to show what we have been working on. We presented that well
and that’s something positive for us. We’re a young team compared
to the likes of Meryl and Charlie who have been around for what
seems like such a long time. I think this year is another big
stepping stone for us.”

Cannuscio added, “We know being sixth-ranked
in the country, the Olympics are a far shot. We are hoping to get
Four Continents next spring. We want to continue to improve. We
don’t want to be forgotten and want to be considered for
assignments next season, the season after, whatever may come. We
are going to keep doing what we do.”

13. Overall 100.31; 13.FD 62.30 (28.57+33.73)
Alissandra Aronow &
Collin Brubaker, USA,
who performed to the music for “Love Story”,were very happy to be competing in their first international
and with how they skated. He said “We are excited. It feels good
to be done. Now we have to go back and see what we can do to
improve things. Overall, we are pleased with our performances
here.”

Pairs Free Skate

1. Overall 201.30; 1.FS 132.78 (68.51+64.27)
Kirsten Moore-Towers &
Dylan Moscovitch, from Waterloo in Ontario, have had a bit of
an up-and-down career. They teamed up in the spring of 2009. She
is 21 and he will turn 29 on September 23. They have competed in
the world championships twice finishing eighth in 2011 and fourth
last March. They won their nationals in 2011 after being fifth the
year before but were subsequently fourth in 2012 and then earned
silver last season and got to Worlds, to compete not far from
their own training grounds. They are coached by Kris & Kristy
Wirtz.

Their Free was set to a medley of music from
Fellini’s movies. Moore-Towers joked, “We made it exciting with
some trouble on our last lift, but Dylan showed great strength to
pull us through. It’s only the second time we had performed this
program and our performance tonight bodes well for the rest of the
season.

He said, “The
program felt really great. I was expecting the altitude (4,300
feet) to be more of a problem than it was. The elements felt very
comfy. I think it was a good building block going into the Grand
Prixs. We have been training very well and very hard. I knew after
the way it felt last year to add some extra cardio to the
repertoire. It felt very good right up to the end. That program,
no matter how hard I train it, is always hard at the end and it’s
built that way. It was harder than it would have been at home. Our
training came through. It was good for this point in the season.”

All
their elements received positive Grades of Execution apart from
the final lift which earned just the base value. They opened their
routine with a Level 2 triple twist, followed by a sequence of two
triple toe loops, and side-by-side triple Salchows. Their back
outside death spiral was Level 3 and the pair spin, the maximum
level 4. At the halfway point where the 10% bonus marks click in,
they executed a throw triple loop and later another throw, a
triple Salchow. After the loop, they soared through two lifts.Then
came a flying change foot camel spin Level 3. After the second
throw they finished with a Group 3 Level 3 on which they had a
little difficulty.controlling the landing.

2. Overall 188.47; 2.FS 126.81 (65.35+61.46)CaydeeDenney
& John Coughlin,
who train with Dalilah Sappenfield in Colorado Springs, performed
to “Phantom of the Opera” with no trouble with the altitude since
their home site is far higher.

Coughlin, who is 27, said, “It was a lot of
fun. We could feel everybody supporting us. I also feel like the
crowd realized it was our first time back out there. We felt the
audience behind us. Caydee and I took a minute afterwards to
recognize the reception after the short program, and we got that
feeling again after the Free. We needed to relax and trust what we
have always done.”

Last December, he had hip surgery to repair a
torn left labrum. That meant they could not defend their U.S.
title. Despite going through an intense recovery overseen by the
Olympic Training Center, they were unable to compete in the 2013
world championships. But they now seem to be skating as well as
ever.

Denney, 20, explained, “From every competition
there is always something to grow on within the actual program
itself. We have a lot of time before Skate America where we really
want to be lights out for the fans and ourselves. We know that the
better we can make the program, the better we can be.”

They opened their Free with a Level 3 triple
twist which was so good it earned three of the maximum +3 Grades
of Execution. Then came a +0.93 throw triple loop and +0.47 side
by side triple toe loops. But then they lost marks with doing a
combo of single Axel to double toe loop to double toe loop. The
flying combo camel spin was rewarded with +0.50 over its base
value

At the halfway point an Axel Lasso lift
received the maximum Level 4 and the time bonus. That was followed
by a throw triple flip which earned an extra 1.40. Another lift
got an extra +0.93. The back outside death spiral gained a small
0.23 over its Level 3 base value. Then came the final lift, so
well brought off, one judge gave +3 GoE. They brought this
exciting showing to a conclusion with a Level 3 spin, with +0.67
above its base value. Their component scores were 61.46 compared
to the winners’ 64.27.

3. Overall 167.27; 1.FS 106.96 (54.22+53.74 -1
for a fall) Tarah Kayne,
a 20-year-old from Fort Myers, and
Daniel O’Shea, 22, from
Gurnee, Illinois, train in Ellenton with Jim Peterson’s group.
They were 7th in this past U.S. championship. They
skated to music from the ballet, Don Quixote. She fell on a throw
triple loop and there were lots of small errors but they skated
with gusto and obvious joy.

She explained, “We’re trying a pretty new
element for us, the triple Salchow-triple Salchow sequence. This
is the first competition we’ve accomplished that so we started off
the program very pleased. We need to keep moving no matter what
obstacles we face. We have fought injuries and other obstacles and
we kept pushing through no matter how hard it’s been. I feel our
performance this week shows that hard work pays off.”

He admitted, “I was a little disappointed in
myself. I made some silly mistakes, hand down on both jumps. It
could have been cleaner but I’m happy with how we performed and
didn’t let little mistakes affect the program as a whole.”

4. Overall 165.91; FS 103.65 (52.32+53.33 -2
for two falls) Marissa
Castelli & Simon
Shnapir, who train in Boston, were not pleased with their
routine set to music from “Skyfall”. She admitted “It just wasn’t
good. It wasn’t our day. We need to focus our side-by-side jumps.
That’s something we need to tackle. We did double toes because we
were working on doing that quad (throw quad Salchow), but we need
to go back to our jumps. We will have the throw quad Salchow for
Skate America. We are taking little steps every day. I’ve been
standing up on most of them and we need to keep on working it.”

He agreed with his partner. “We’re
disappointed. That’s not what we wanted to put out. We had a
couple falls and just didn’t feel strong today. I felt confident
going in but I didn’t execute. We have to go back and keep
training hard.”

5. Overall 155.00; FS 95.70 (47.11+49.59 -1)
Paige Lawrence &
Rudi Swiegers, Canada,
had a performance best quickly forgotten. The opened with a single
toe loop, but did manage the following triple twist Level 1.
However, they got no marks for the following Axel sequence. Their
flying camel combination spin earned Level 4, with +0.50, but
their back outside death spiral was only Level 1.Their Level 3
lift was good with +0.83. After a flawed triple loop, they did a
+0.93 Axel Lasso lift and a Group 4 lift which earned an extra
0.33. Then came her fall on a throw triple flip. Their final move
was a good Level 3 combination spin. It certainly wasn’t the
showing they wanted, but it certainly did not approach some of the
catastrophies this writer has seen in world championships.

7. Overall 130.20 total; FS 79.97
(37.70+42.27) Felicia Zhang,
who will turn 20 on September 22, is from Plainsboro, N.J. Her
partner, Nathan Bartholomay,
is a 24-year- old from Newtown, Pa. They train
in Ellenton, Fla. They were third in the U.S. championships but
they completely missed two lifts late in their program which cost
them a huge number of points.

Bartholomay explained, “There are a lot of
technical points in the program and we lost a lot of them today.
The routine (which is set to Les Miserables) is laid out
perfectly. We had some bumps and hitches in training. We weren’t
trying to peak here, but it certainly wasn’t anywhere close to
where we wanted to be. This time we showed that we’re a little
human with the mistakes. It’s not what we wanted. We ended strong.
That’s been a big thing in our training. If this doesn’t happen
every once in a while, you’re not going to learn. We’re going to
take it and learn then peak later in the season.”

Zhang added, “We’re going to go full out
everytime. I think we did attack. We got distracted after the
first lift but then we got back on track and landed the throw
Salchow. Going into the last lift, there were tracking mishaps.”